A Step Toward Synthetic Cognition and Artificial Organs

A team of researchers from Harvard, Stanford, and Sogang University in South Korea made headlines this week with a discovery that captures the future of bioengineering. Living cardiac muscle cells were taken from rats and printed onto a robot shaped like a sting ray. The cells were engineered to express proteins that activate in response to light; when activated, the cells twitch, inducing a contraction and subsequently moving the wings of the ray.

The cells were printed in such a way that would mimic the swimming stroke of a sting ray during contractions. Proteins within the cells were even fine-tuned to respond to different light intensities so that the robot can make turns and navigate obstacles.

This work leads us closer to a fully bioengineered heart; the ray does not exactly resemble the heart but developing technology to control cardiac cells is the key to building a heart that can beat on its own.